Gotham Writers

Submit for the 2026 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize with guest judge, Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring 2026 and published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 and a free 10-week course w/ @gothamwriters.bsky.social. bit.ly/3GE3N0b

Exciting news! We are now on Substack. Every month, our very own Stuart Pennebaker will answer your writing-related questions. Check out our first post and give us a follow if you like: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Over a blue background with a white and yellow abstract design, Gotham Writers Workshop—one of the largest and longest running writing workshops in NYC — announces it will not take new enrollments on Friday, January 30th, in solidarity with the ICE Out Blackout. "We appreciate your understanding as we stand with communities fighting for justice in Minnesota and beyond."

#NationalShutdown
#IceOutBlackout

Tomorrow, my employer @gothamwriters.bsky.social, will not accept new enrollments in solidarity with the ICE Out Blackout.

I'll be participating individually, as well.

Simon Rich in front of a blue background, with text that says, "Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize 2026, Guest Judge Simon Rich."

2026 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize with guest judge, Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring '26 & published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 & a free 10-week course with @gothamwriters.bsky.social. Sub by March 6! bit.ly/3GE3N0b

Congrats to the winners of our 2025 Creative Writing Scholarship for Writers of Color!

Jonathan Jackson
Shania Siu
Fatima Cervantes

We cannot wait to see what these writers have in store.

Scriptwriters of Color, get ready... (more details below!) 👀

v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

Aerosol paint can with black paint dripping down the side, "Leave Your Mark" written graffiti style in rainbow colors.

Hey, #WritingCommunity! If you know any young writers (ages 13 to 18), we @gothamwriters.bsky.social have the contest for them!

Tell us a story about a scar.

v2.writingclasses.com/contests/got...

Writers of color! Only a few days left to apply for our Creative Writing Scholarship! Winners receive a 6-week class, a 10-week workshop, and 2 Intensives of their choice, plus a 12-hour mentorship package! Apply below... 👇📝

v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

You can enter the October #StoriesEverywhere contest for the chance to win a free class right here. ⬇️

v2.writingclasses.com/contests/gww...

Congratulations to our September #StoriesEverywhere winner, Kris Knapp! The theme was "Progress Report":

“Dating apps? Really?”

“Bows and arrows are inefficient. Don’t you appreciate initiative?”

“I appreciate results. Get back out there,” Venus said, handing Cupid his quiver.

Give us the first line of your imagined novel coming out in the year 2052 for the chance to win a free Gotham class!

v2.writingclasses.com/contests/fut...

"Encouragement" by Angela Lam, an artist and writer. She sells her artwork at Made Local Marketplace and teaches creative writing @gothamwriters.bsky.social. #encouragement #concussion #sofa #useless #mute #son #catalogue #paper #nevergiveup #determination #micromemoir

Calling writers ages 13-18!

Are you on Bluesky? Probably not! But perhaps people who know you are.

We are running our very first teen writing contest, and would love to read your stories. The winner will receive a $400 Gotham gift card, a $50 gift card to Bookshop, and publication on our site!

It’s wonderful how a writing deadline focuses the mind…on every little thing that’s dirty in your house.

Next Wednesday, September 24th! The last Wednesday of every month is always our favorite, thanks to @nycwriterscircle.bsky.social!

Write-In NYC Mingle and write with fellow writers.

Writers in/around NYC: there are only a handful of spots left in our in-person Write-In happening this Friday, 9/12! There'll be exciting prompts, great instructors, and time to mingle with your fellow writers. Perfect September evening if you ask us. ✍️🍁
wp.writingclasses.com/courses/writ...

Razor submissions are open thru the end of the year!! Send us your flash fiction and flash cnf!

"The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words. The novelist says in words what cannot be said in words. Words can be used thus paradoxically because they have, along with a semiotic usage, a symbolic or metaphoric usage."—Ursula K. Le Guin

🙌🙌🙌

Hilton Als’s Essential James Baldwin Looking closely at a few of the legendary writer’s works.

James Baldwin has become as much an icon as a public intellectual can be—a status that risks obscuring the richness and variety of his body of work, which explores race, homosexuality, family, and more. Hilton Als shares a few essential books.

Writers of color! If you have a book manuscript (or nonfiction book proposal) ready to start pitching, there are two days left to apply for our Publish a Book Scholarship for Writers of Color!
Click thru ⬇️ to learn more about application guidelines and submit!
v2.writingclasses.com/scholarships...

Simon Rich in front of a blue background, with text that says, "Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize 2026, Guest Judge Simon Rich."

Sub by 3/6 for the Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize, judged by Simon Rich! Winning work will be performed by an actor in spring 2026 & published on @electricliterature.com. Winning writer will receive $1000 & a free 10-week course with @gothamwriters.bsky.social. Details: bit.ly/3GE3N0b

Faculty Article: Why Write Your Family’s Story? For much of my childhood in the 1980s, my mother served up Chinese fast food from a stand in a second-rate suburban mall. Her customers were...

When students tell us they can't possibly write about their family, teachers like me usually say, deal w/that later, or, yeah, it can be really fraught.

Actually, says @teresawong.bsky.social, you SHOULD write them. Here's why.

www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/arti...
#writingcommunity

This Thursday, 8/14 we will be back at the Bryant Park Reading Room for the final installment of our free Summer workshops! Join us from 6:30-8pm for a free Fiction Writing class!

There are no screenwriting rules. There are conventions, patterns, paradigms. Know them, but don’t let them constrain your creativity. #screenwriting #scriptsky

A house isn’t a home without an excessive amount of books. 🏡📚

"I stand here like some ashes that used to be a clown, looking out quietly from my face to watch the failure of these words to be those things." —Denis Johnson, "For Jane"

I not-so-secretly love it when the stores put out their back to school displays. Something deep within my soul is soothed by an orderly aisle full of colorful notebooks, pens, and backpacks

😍😍😍

"Still, I offer you my burning heart." Wow! 👏

Time-Travelling with Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary I was born in the year of “parachute pants” and “stepparenting.” I graduated from college in the year of “chillax” and “clickbait.”

What words were first used in the year you were born?